A Different Spring Adventure
by meggie6
Summary: What happens when another raccoon shows up with problems of her own? RJXOC R&R Pweez!
1. Disclaimer

_**Disclaimer!!**_

_**I do **__**not **__**own "Over the Hedge" **_

_**Over the Hedge and its original characters © DreamWorks **_

_**OCs Roxanne and Teri © meggie6 **_


	2. The Chase and the Cookies

"Just keep running! Keep running!" She panted quietly. She had been running for a long time, the night time air stung her face and tears started forming from the wind. She couldn't stop now though, the beast was right on her tail, and still coming!

"Damn, does she ever give up?" Coming up on a highway, she gasped when she saw all of the traffic. There were barely any spaces for her to run through, but it was either getting eaten or run over. Quickly the raccoon ran between two semi trucks, and almost got hit by a minivan coming the other way.

Sooner than she had thought, she was on the other side. The raccoon lay on the ground panting violently. She looked up to see that the cougar had finally stopped.

The mountain lion silently cursed in defeat, another dinner gone. She held up her head proudly and yelled loud enough so the pesky rodent could hear her over the cars.

"The next time I see you Roxanne, you better count your blessings! You can't escape death forever!"

Roxanne just laughed, still out of breath from the chase. She stood up and shook her butt at the defeated feline. "_Near the highway, the noisy highway, the lion has no food! Near the highway, the busy highway, Teri is a fool! Aweeengdabomdaway!!" _

Across the way, Teri snarled at the raccoon through the cars. "Keep acting like that and your life will be a short one, rodent!" with that she turned and padded towards the mountains in the distance. Teri had a long way to go from the highway; the raccoon had given a good chase. Passing by a rest stop the lioness stopped to look at a vending machine, she tilted her head curiously.

"How do those two-leggers get their food in there?" She walked up to the flap and put her paw in the hole, but quickly pulled it out so she wouldn't get her paw stuck. "How do they get it _out?"_ She watched the light flicker for a moment before deciding to turn away from it.

Just as she did so a sharp, sudden sting went through her shoulder. She roared with pain and tried to claw at the thing in her skin, but uncontrollably she fell to the ground as her vision started to darken. The last thing Teri saw was a human looking down at her…

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Once her heart slowed to a steady pulse, Roxanne pushed herself up from the ground and looked around. She couldn't go back to that fox hole she was staying in, either that cat would try to get her or she would be ran over trying to get back across. She chuckled to herself as she thought "_I'll die and be mince meat either way" _

Roxanne dusted off her fur and turned to the suburban town. She casually went in that direction saying to herself, "I guess I can live off of old pizza and leftovers," she smiled and added "Some humans actually have good taste."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"RJ! You can wake up now!" the said raccoon pulled a leaf over his head while still being shaken by an energetic squirrel. "Come on sleepy head it's spring!"

"Hammy, I'm awake! You can stop shaking me now!" RJ yawned. His first hibernation wasn't an easy one; he kept waking up either from a porcupine or Hammy talking in his sleep. How could those foragers do it?

"Morin' everyone." He mumbled. A wave of "Hey RJ," met his ears before sitting beside Heather, who was singing some strange song with her headphones on. RJ smiled; Heather was a very good singer, but he was sure she didn't know what half of those human words meant.

"How'd you sleep dear?" Penny took a seat beside RJ who was listing to Heather.

"Good I guess. Other than gaining about ten pounds and having about fifty punctures in my side. yawn Quite refreshing." Penny stood up and patted RJ's head like a small child would pet a puppy.

"That's good. Well, 274 days until winter." RJ groaned lightly. He never liked how they would count _all_ of the days left. It got really annoying after "_251 days until winter_." Seriously, _who cares_? He started getting bored so he decided to see what the humans were doing. After getting to a good branch and a good angle, he laid on his stomach with his head on his hands.

The usual. Some humans were already up; putting things in their cars, taking things out of their cars. A few human girls were playing jump rope, singing catchy songs as they jumped. Three or four on their bikes. Ehh… normal spring day.

"What are you doing RJ?" He turned his head away from the humans and looked down at Verne. "You're not planning something you're not supposed to be doing are you?"

RJ sighed and replied sarcastically, "I'm going to get ran over and give my organs to poor stray dogs with no chew toys." Verne gave him a look as he landed beside him, "Just watching the people Verne. Don't get your tail in a tingle fit."

Verne sighed. "That sarcasm will kill you one day." RJ laughed lightly, "A lot of things are bound to kill me, Verne. Luckily I know just how to work my way around things."

Suddenly Hammy bolted up to them with an empty box of chocolate chip cookies. He whined sadly, "There are no more cookies… they're all gone. Can we go get some more? Please oh please RJ?"

Verne was about to say otherwise, but RJ held his arm in front of him and replied. "How could you say no to that face Verne?" Hammy's eyes got bigger as he said that to get Verne to say yes.

Verne sighed and patted Hammy on the head. "Don't go alone you two."


	3. The Talking Trash can

RJ planned to go when it got dark. The house they were going into belonged to a fat happy couple who were not planning on a diet any time soon. That meant more goodies for them. And they usually went out late so they were lucky. While they were at it, they decided, they would take a look in their garbage for anything useful.

Once the car had left the garage and was down the road Heather, Ozzie, Hammy and RJ went to the back of the house. Stella would have gone too but her and Tiger wanted to spend time together after the winter away. There were three trash cans behind the house with a few cardboard boxes that they could use to get into the open window.

RJ chuckled as he thought, "_Too easy."_With Ozzie's help he tipped over one of the covered cans and immediately the four started going through the trash. Unfortunately there was barely anything to eat, but plenty of old Cd's, a few plastic bottles, a milk carton, eh… stuff.

"Take what you want and let's get into the house." RJ tilted his head at Hammy who had a screw driver in his mouth. "Hammy, don't eat that." The squirrel dangled the tool away.

"It tastes funny." RJ took it away from him and pointed it at him, "That's because you don't eat screw drivers, you'll get yourself sick." RJ threw the tool in another trash can that didn't have a lid, but just as he did so a sudden "ouch!" came from the trash can.

Everyone stopped and stared at it for a moment before Ozzie bravely knocked on the metal.

"Hello?" Said the trash can. Ozzie gasped and played dead while the others hid behind RJ. Heather pulled on his arm while she whispered. "You didn't say anything about talking trash cans last spring!"

Then the trash can groaned and it spoke again, "You people need to get out more… umm. I'm kinda stuck in here so if you could help me out, that would be great."

Ozzie sat up and looked at the can wide-eyed, "You mean to say that the trash can ate you?" everyone gasped at the thought and started backing away from the other trash cans. Everyone except RJ.

"Guys, listen! She _jumped into_the trash can and now she's stuck. Got it?" Hammy and Heather nodded as Ozzie helped RJ tip the can over. Once all of the trash was out a raccoon fell out along with it, but by the way she was thrown out she was laying on her stomach with her arms by her sides. The raccoon huffed and sat up, mumbling "thanks" as she brushed the garbage out of her fur. She looked at the four who were now staring at her.

"Ummm. Hi? Well I'd love to chat with yall but I gotta get goin'."

As she stood up to leave Heather asked, "Wait. Where are you going?"

The raccoon glanced at her strangely before answering, "Somewhere I can stay I guess."

"You mean you don't have a home? You've got nowhere to stay?" Hammy said as if that was the craziest thing on earth. The raccoon shrugged. "That's the life of a traveler."

"Then why don't you stay with us?" Hammy asked her. The raccoon seemed surprised at the gesture. Most raccoons were loners so she had never been asked to stay with someone. She thought for a second about her options. _"There is safety in numbers, and if they want me to I guess I could. I'm in no rush to leave."_

"I don't wanna be a burden to anyone…" she trailed off when she realized the squirrel's eyes were slowly getting bigger and sadder. Her feminine side to things were taking over the situation. _"Aww. He's so cute. Those big eyes are so sweet." _Her face started to soften as she thought of this. "But I guess if you guys don't mind… I could say awhile."

Hammy snapped back to happy in a flash, "Great! I'm Hammy, what's your name?" He said it so fast that it took a moment for it to sink in. "Oh, my name? My name's Roxanne."

Suddenly RJ jumped off of a trash can with a box of cookies and Spuddies under his arm. They hadn't realized RJ had already gone into the house. He handed Roxanne a spuddie and said, "Okay then, mind if I call you Roxie?"

Roxanne looked at the spuddie and grunted, "I guess." She ate the spuddie in one bite and followed the others to the other side of the hedge.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So let me get this straight, you tried to steal a bear's food, but you got caught and you had to get _all_ of the food back in a week so you used these guys to help get the food for you?"

"Yeah pretty much."

Roxanne laughed at the story RJ had told her. It didn't seem realistic. And plus who would dare take food from a bear? That's just insane. Maybe the raccoon sitting beside her was crazy. _"Then again, perhaps they're all crazy…" _she thought.

She was amused by how they stole so many things from the humans; she would have never taken all of the food they collected from the house, or a TV for that matter. It was cool though. Penny turned off the TV and started picking up the sleeping porcupine kids. She turned to Roxanne and whispered, "If you get cold there are some blankets in the log."

Roxanne smiled. They were crazy, but they were nice. "Thank-you, Penny." She got up from the ground and headed toward a tree. Once she got a good branch she went to sleep.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Roxanne woke up a little earlier than she thought she would. Actually, it was still night but this was a cold spring night. She shivered a bit and tried to shake it off but the cold was bothering her quite a bit.

"Aren't you cold?"

She looked down to see Hammy staring back up at her with his blanket over his shoulders. She smiled and admitted, "It's a little chillier then I thought it would be."

"All of the blankets are gone but you can share mine." Hammy offered.

"Thanks but I--"

"I don't mind." Hammy stated. Roxanne sighed in defeat and climbed down the tree cautiously. Hammy sat back down at his original space and patted the ground beside him. Roxanne sat down and Hammy spread the blanket so they would get an equal share.

"Thank-you Hammy."

Yeah they were still crazy to her, but you couldn't meet a group homier than this one.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

RJ heard Hammy talking to someone and turned to the two. Once he saw that he had shared his blanket with Roxie he smiled and yawned, _"What a nice guy that Hammy is…"_

Then he had accidentally locked eyes with Roxanne and realized something, her eyes were brown; a dark calming brown. Brown was an unusual eye color for raccoons. Blue was almost the main color, green was seen every once and a while, but brown was a hard color for a raccoon to pull off. Dark brown usually meant the person was calm and quiet most of the time. Not a lot of raccoons were that way.

"_She seems to pull it off though." _He didn't realize how long he had been looking into her eyes until she had pulled away from the gaze. RJ just shrugged it off and went back to sleep.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Roxanne turned away from RJ with the weirdest thought in her head.

"_Why was he looking at me that way? Maybe he… no… he couldn't feel that way toward me… we just met… it was probably nothing… Probably…"_

_**wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww**_

**_hello? anyone? getting kinda lonely here! R&R Pweez! _**


	4. Stupid Voice

"Okay you guys! Only 273 days until winter! Come on lets go. We need to fill the log!" Roxanne woke with a shock. She wasn't used to Verne yelling in everyone's ear in the morning. She looked around and realized she didn't even wake up this early! She yawned and looked around at the others. Hammy was still asleep as if nothing had happened. RJ was complaining to Verne, saying they didn't need to get up so early to get food; and something about counting days.

"Seriously Verne, how do you even know how many days there are in spring, summer and fall? Doesn't it get a little annoying saying all of those days?" RJ groaned while Verne was prying the blanket from him. Roxanne giggled lightly and stretched her arms. Suddenly Hammy woke like an alarm clock.

"Morning Roxie! Morning Verne! Morning RJ! Morn--"Roxanne put a finger on Hammy's lips to make him stop for a moment, "If you say 'morning everyone' then you don't have to say it so many times… Okay?" Hammy nodded his head and waved a hand.

"Morning everyone!" Everyone grunted in response and continued on with business. Hammy looked at Roxanne for approval as she went to help Verne with the blanket wrangler. He just stood back as she not only took the blanket away from RJ but single handedly threw him out of the car seat in one movement.

"Ow. That's not very nice young lady." He said sleepily. Roxanne patted his head and picked him up so he was forced to stand. RJ was surprised at her upper-body strength as she made him walk.

"_Keep Holding on. 'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through…" _

She turned when she heard singing in the back ground; Heather was quietly singing to herself as she collected the fall leaves from the log.

"Wow…" Heather turned to her when she heard her exclamation. "What?" Roxanne smiled and waved a hand to her as she sat on a smaller log, "No no, keep singing, you're great!"

She grinned as she saw the red coming out through Heather's fur and going up her ears, "I'm not that good..." The raccoon merely shook her head. "You're wonderful! You sound just like Avril Lavigne." _**(lol, get it? Avril voices Heather) **_"Well I guess, maybe like a little bit" Heather said as she scratched the back of her head. "'Maybe a little bit?' Almost exactly to me!" Roxanne replied.

She put one leg over the other and leaned back. "Go on, don't mind me!" Heather sighed and continued singing as she threw more leaves near a tree.

"_I like teenagers; they're a lot less noisy than kids. I could get used to talking with Heather. Bet she could be the little sister I never had."_

She smiled and after a moment she let her mind drift off a bit.

"_I'll probably have to leave soon. I don't want to overstay my welcome. I'll leave after they get back from getting the food they need… maybe I should take some food before I leave too."_

She listened to Heather a bit longer and then turned to the porcupine kids that were still sleeping in a little bundle. She sighed and then drifted off a bit more.

"_Well I don't have to leave _right_now. I mean, it's not like I have a home to go to. I could ask if I can stay. Ehh. I like it here, but I would be really embarrassed if they say no and kicked me out… but they don't seem like the type to do that. Except maybe RJ…" _She raised her eyebrow at her own thoughts and huffed, _"Even if that's why he looked at me that way last night, I don't know a thing about him…"_

She then realized Heather was done singing as she stopped for a while; there were _a lot _of leaves.

"_Although… Heather might know a thing or two, after all, they practically live together."_

Roxanne stood up and as casually as she could she went up to the log. "Need some help?" Heather nodded and went into the log to get more leaves. They worked quietly before Roxie was dying to ask her some questions about RJ.

"So… RJ, what's he like?" _ouch_, she thought, _that didn't sound casual at all!_ Heather didn't seem to notice though. "Well he's okay. He can be nice, he's funny sometimes… he's like really smart when it comes to humans." Roxanne huffed a bit

"That's pretty much the definition of raccoons." Heather came back for more leaves and raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?" she said as she picked up another pile. "Well most raccoons live in places near human houses, after being with them for a long time you kinda learn how they work. What to do, what not to do, it kinda catches on as you live with them."

Heather nodded as she listened to her explain. Remembering the main question at hand she added, "Well, RJs ya know, sweet and all. But he loves to bother Verne."

"I can tell." Roxie said as she rolled her eyes. "He can be a charmer. It gets annoying though after a while." Heather continued. "What do you mean?"

"Well he seems to hit on me and Stella for fun when he's bored. I mean, like we know he's joking, but the way he does it, it's hard to tell. He's funny like that… I'm actually surprised he hasn't hit on you yet."

Roxie stopped for a moment, letting this information sink in, and then said, "How come?"

Heather laughed half-heartedly and replied, "Well like for one thing you're a girl. You're nice, confident, a raccoon, and like totally pretty. Ya know?"

Roxanne pondered over this for a moment before Heather said something that went completely under consideration. "Ehh. Maybe you're different than other girls to him…"

"_Different? To him?" _She repeated in her mind, _"What makes me different from anyone else he's ever met?"_

"_Maybe he _**likes **_you…" _Said a small voice in the back of her head. As she thought it over the voice got louder. So loud in fact that she almost said it.

"_Maybe… you_** like**_ him?" _the voice taunted. Immediately she pushed that thought as far as it would go and thought to herself.

"_Shut up stupid voice..."_

**_WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW_**

**_I don't own the song! Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne._**

**_Yes! Avril Lavigne Voices Heather!_**

**_I hate those evil voices... even though they do tell the truth sometimes..._**


	5. Fireflies and Butterflies

**_Warning! Fluffy chapter!! _**

**_(Its so cute! You gotta read it!)_**

**_wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww_**

It didn't take long for the others to fill the log with more acorns, and after they came back from the other side of the hedge they had stolen some Krispy Kream donuts from an open car door. And to them, that was dinner. Roxanne wrinkled up her nose with distaste. She knew darn well that donuts weren't at all healthy for dinner. So she went into another house and got someone's strawberries. Brand new too.

She sat by a tree and watched the fireflies go by and blink on and off. The others were crowded around the TV watching a cat being beet up by a mouse. She didn't want to watch TV or even talk to the others; she had some things to think about.

"_Well, I should tell them I'm leaving now. That is if they'll take their heads away from the television… I kinda wish I could stay, nothings telling me I can't. If they say no I'll be SO embarrassed. Well they won't say yes if I don't ask them. I guess I'll ask them tomorrow. Feh. That's what I said yesterday… or _thought _yesterday."_

She took another strawberry from the plastic container as she stared at a nearby firefly. She looked at the strawberry she was about to eat before she realized something was already eating it. A small firefly was sitting on the strawberry, just hanging out. Roxie put her finger in front of the lighting bug, letting it crawl onto her finger. She sighed.

"Hey there little guy. Just hanging around huh? You're pretty lucky, living here, without a care in the world. Just living. I guess you don't have girl trouble huh? All you have to do is be beautiful. Minding your own business." Roxie started to fade off as she thought how easy it would be to be a little firefly. She sighed as the firebug opened his wings and flew off with the rest of the fireflies.

"Do you normally talk to bugs?" She turned to see RJ leaning against the tree. He sat beside her and watched a few lightning bugs go by. "Yes. I talk to strawberries too." She said sarcastically as she waved a strawberry in his face. She took a bite and chuckled.

"Well bugs have feelings too. And plus it helps you think when you talk to things that don't answer." RJ looked at her strangely. "And talking to things you eat helps… how?" he said as he took a strawberry from the container. "Hi. I'm RJ and you are a strawberry. I'll eat you now." He ate the berry while screaming dramatically, "Noooo!"

Roxanne giggled and sighed "Well fruits aren't good listeners though. They just ignore you, as if they're not alive."

"Imagine that." He replied as he threw the top to the fireflies eating the others Roxanne had left. Roxanne stopped and held out her hand slowly, and a lighting bug landed softly on her knuckles and crawled around between her fingers.

She saw out of the corner of her eye that RJ was looking at her and not looking at the firefly. She tried not to completely look at him and thought, _"I wonder what he's thinking…"_

_**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**_

"_Her eyes, wow… they're just so dark so… secretive, so calm, so… so knowing. At night they're so peaceful, but during the day they're curious, creative, and sneaky. They're beautiful." _Suddenly the non-poetic side of his mind struck the poetic side like a snake and made the soft side go back into hiding. He almost shook his head at what he had just thought. _"What am I thinking? She's leaving soon; she said she wasn't staying long…"_

"_But you want her to stay don't you?" _Said the evil, but clever voice in the back of his head. But unlike Roxie he gave into it. _"Maybe I do." _He answered to the voice.

"…_I wonder what she's thinking…"_

_**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**_

Roxanne let the firefly fly away and turned to RJ; he was no longer looking at her but was obviously thinking hard about something. Roxie smiled and remembered what her grandmother used to ask people when they were thinking about something.

"What cha thinking about?"

"Huh? Oh! I was… thinking about how you knew the firefly was a boy… earlier." He answered slowly. She knew that wasn't what he was thinking by the way he answered her, but decided to go along with it.

"The ones that fly around are the guys; the girls are in the grass waiting for a mate." She answered. RJ raised an eyebrow at how she could bring up mating so confidently. Most people at least fidgeted when they talk about that sort of stuff.

"How do you know?" he asked suspiciously as if she was lying.

"My dad told me all sort of stuff like that. He treated me like I was really stupid, but I still learned things from him. He learned about things like that from an old badger that lived near his tree as a kid." She said sincerely. She looked off into the distance as she sighed at her memories with her father. RJ followed her motion.

"Where is your father now?" He asked quietly. She smiled and answered, "Far away. I was separated from them back in the fall. I could already care for myself, but I wanted to live close, ya know? Unfortunately the humans decided to take me somewhere, put some kinda needle between my shoulder blades and set me loose in the wrong place."

RJ felt his heart sink all the way to his stomach and burst with guilt. Why did he have to bring it up? Now she'll probably _want _to leave. "I'm sorry." He apologized. She looked up and forced a small smile.

"Don't worry about it. I'm fine, not everyone stay's with their family forever anyway. They're probably okay without me. What about you?"

"Me? I wanted to leave my family. They were crazy!" RJ replied. Roxanne raised an eyebrow, "And that's different from you how?"

"Ouch, harsh girl." She laughed quietly as he covered his chest as if he had been shot. He smiled, maybe she would stay. But she wasn't gonna say yes if he didn't ask her. Then he got it! He wouldn't exactly _ask _her to stay but suggest staying. Oh yes, he was a genius.

"Ya know… you could, well… you could s-stay here. I-If you wanted to. The others wouldn't mind. So…" Dang it why was it so hard to talk to _her!_

Roxanne felt as if the weight of the whole world was off of her shoulders. This was so much easier than asking them! But, why was she suddenly so shy around him?

"I... I was gonna ask you that anyway… if-if I could stay so umm, thank-you." _"'So um thank-you'! That was pathetic!" _

RJ felt much better now that he wasn't the only one stuttering and even better that he wasn't rejected. He smiled and looked at the others who were fast asleep, he yawned and stood up.

"I guess its bed time." He said more confidently, he held out a hand and helped Roxanne to her feet. She held his hand and smiled, "Thanks, again. Good night RJ."

She went to get the blanket they had gotten for her that day and sat in her new spot. "Good night Roxie." He replied.

That night they both went to sleep with the butterflies still in their stomachs. But they still didn't know the danger that was awaiting them the next morning.

**_WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW_**

**_Its funny 'cause my dad taught me that firefly thing, and he thinks I'm two for some reason... _****_And my Grandmother says "What cha thinking about?" all the time. So I took things from my actual life to write this chapter. R&R!! _**


	6. You Can't Escape Death Forever

Shaking, why was there shaking that didn't seem to stop?

"Roxie! Roxie! Wake up!" Oh, that was it.

"Hammy, what is it? What do you want?" Roxanne moaned. She tried to go back to sleep but Hammy continued to shake her.

"Hammy! Okay, okay I'm awake!" she stood up and glared down at the squirrel who was shaking uncontrollably.

"Hammy? Are you okay?" She sat beside him and patted his head.

"What's wrong?"

"The humans, they're doing something weird." He replied as he pointed at the hedge in front of them. Roxanne glanced around at the others who were still sleeping and stroked the top of Hammy's head lightly.

"It's okay, shhh. It's okay. I'm gonna go look, alright? Just stay here, try to calm down a bit."

She went to the hedge and peeked her head out from the bottom of the bush. There right in front of her was a large white van that had mud on the edges of the tires and splashed mud on the sides. Behind the van was a yellow truck with a weird bucket on front of it that was rectangle shaped and had sharp edges on the bottom side of the bucket.

Roxanne slowly crawled out of the hedge and looked into the back of the van. Cages, lots of cages, needles, tranquilizer guns, it all seemed familiar to her. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks, the humans were going to take everyone to that place where she had gone, and destroy the rest of the forest.

She backed away from the van in fear, but then jumped as she stepped on a chain saw. She pulled her foot away from the wood eater and ran into the hedge. She stopped at a tree and covered her face in her hands.

"Great, now what am I gonna do?" she groaned softly. She turned suddenly as she heard a twig crack beside her. Verne was about to go over to the other side of the hedge before Roxie grabbed him by his shell.

"Don't go over there!" she whispered franticly. Verne raised an eyebrow at her strange behavior and shooed her hand off.

"Why not?" he whispered back.

"Hammy said the humans were doing something weird, I'm going to check it out." He tried again but Roxanne stopped him in mid-stride.

"Don't! They're going to run this place over and they're going to catch us and put us somewhere else! Happy?" Roxanne let him go as he gave her a worried and confused look.

"Well what are we going to do then? Run? Hide? Fight?" Verne whispered back. Roxie shook her head miserably, trying to avoid his eyes.

"I don't think we can _do _anything about it. Where would we run or hide? And fighting them won't work, they'll just catch us anyway." She said to him. Verne shook his head at her answer.

"We've got to do something!" He exclaimed quietly as he shook her shoulders. She looked him in the eye and gave him a look that said "We-don't-have-a-chance."

Verne stopped shaking her and turned the other way, "We should at least tell the others."

"But Verne--" she started, but couldn't finish as a small black ball landed in front of her.

As soon as it had landed it started making an awful hissing noise and smoke started pouring from it. Then she heard the same thing from a distance and realized there was another one closer to the others. Screams came from that way as the smoke seemed to devour them and make them fall to their knees. Coughing up a fit, Roxanne tried to get up to the others and help them somehow, but the smoke was taking its affect on her.

She fell again on her stomach and her vision was getting blurry. She had to do something, anything. She gripped the grass trying to get up again, but things were getting darker and her grip was getting weaker.

Finally she let go of the grass as her body gave up. Her vision blacked out and whatever happened next was unknown to her.

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

"I don't think they've been captured before. Oh look John! One of them is coming through!"

Roxanne heard a voice that seemed far off, but then got louder and her vision straightened out slowly. She was in a white, bricked room with many cages lining two of the walls. The last two walls were parallel from one another and had a door on each side. One of which had a strange yellow triangle with a symbol on it.

"Hello raccoon!" said the voice. Roxie turned to the cage to the left and saw a large grey squirrel sitting there in front of her. She got up slowly and groaned as she rubbed her throbbing head.

"Where am I?" she asked slowly.

"A bad place to be." Said another voice. To the left of the grey squirrel was an old opossum who looked rather scary with one eye being light blue and the other dark green.

"As much as I'd like to tell you that John here's just paranoid, he's actually right." Said the squirrel as he fidgeted with his tail.

"Why? Where exactly am I?" she pressed further.

The squirrel just shook his head slowly. "Well, this place is where humans test their chemicals, and see how it affects animals. Most of the time the chemical is bad for you, so. Well--"

"What Tim's trying to say is. You won't get out of here alive, and neither will your friends over there." John finished gravely.

Roxanne turned to her right and saw Heather in the cage beside her, along with Penny and the kids in the next cage. She looked around and saw RJ, Hammy, and Ozzie across from her. Lou was in the cage below Heather with Verne below Penny.

At least they were all still here, but what was she going to tell them when they woke up? What could she tell them? She sat in the corner closest to Heather and buried her head in her knees.

"Well, well. If it isn't little Roxanne." Said a cold voice across the way.

Roxie's heart stopped as she remembered the all too familiar voice. She slowly made her way to the bars of her cage and looked in the larger cage on the other wall. Two bright green eyes stared back as the cougar in the shadows chuckled.

"I told you, you can't escape death forever."

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_**Again with the Disclaimer!**_

_**I do **__**not **__**own "Over the Hedge" **_

_**Over the Hedge and its original characters © DreamWorks **_

_**OCs Roxanne, Teri, John and Tim © meggie6**_

_**R&R!!**_


	7. Only Mere Hours

"Neither can you obviously." Roxanne retorted to the feline.

Teri ignored the comment and glanced at her claws.

"Well, unlike you I do not fear these humans. I don't care about what they are capable of, for mountain lions like I, do not fear death like prey does." She said proudly. With that she turned back to the shadows, only her eyes visible in the darkness.

Roxie shook her head sadly with a sigh and sat with her head against one of the metal bars.

"_What am I gonna do? What _**can** _I do at this point…? I don't think I can do anything anymore, it's too late. I should have told the others to run, or at least to do something to get away. If anyone deserves this, it's me. The others don't deserve any of this torture."_

As tears began to flow down her cheeks a tap on the metal bar her head was on brought her back from her thoughts. Tim gently placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a small smile.

"It's going to be okay." He whispered to her.

"No its not." John said, ruining the moment.

Roxanne smiled back to the grey squirrel and patted his hand that was on her shoulder. He let go of her and turned to the grim opossum that was being rather insensitive at the moment. She turned to her own possum friend and reached between the bars to gently stroke one of her ears.

"_Maybe Tim has the right idea. Perhaps it will be okay."_

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

After about an hour of boredom Lou, Verne, Heather and Hammy finally woke up. While Heather was trying to wake Penny, Roxie decided to see if the other two were awake yet. Once she saw that Ozzie and RJ were still sleeping she sighed and laid on her back.

She listened to Heather's conversation with Penny as she told her where they were. Tears came to her eyes as she heard Heather sniffling and the three kids telling their porcupine mother that they didn't want to die.

Soon she couldn't help but to whimper quietly to herself. It was all her fault, she didn't know how, but she had brought disaster to this family who had nothing in the world to fear until she came along.

"_Bad luck, that's all I am. I just _**had **_to be part of this family. I should have left after the first night, unless my dumb luck rubbed off on them." _

"Ozzie, Ozzie get up." A soft voice said from across the way.

Roxanne turned to where the voice came from and saw that RJ was awake and was trying to get Ozzie up.

"RJ." Roxie called quietly.

RJ turned toward her direction and forced a small smile.

"Are you okay, RJ?" she asked him.

He sighed and rubbed his aching head, silently cursing the humans for making that stupid knockout gas.

"Never better. What's the plan to get out of this vet center?" He said expectantly.

Roxanne's heart dropped down to her stomach and threatened to strangle her at this point. RJ thought they were in somewhere other than an animal testing area. Tears started stinging her eyes as she struggled to tell him the awful truth.

"We're n-not in a vet center… t-this is a place where they test animals." She stuttered quietly.

RJ raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

"We could still get out--"

"How? They've got us locked in tight, and no one knows how to get to the exit. There are no windows either." Roxanne whimpered.

When RJ had nothing to say she wiped her face with her hand and continued on.

"Face it RJ. The humans have this place animal proof, even raccoon proof. We can't get out."

She sat down in a dark corner and covered her face in her hands. The whole room was silent except for a few sniffles and children crying at lost hope. Finally a small voice called from a cage in the upper left side.

"I think if we all work together, there's still some hope of getting out of here." A young rabbit suggested.

The room became quiet again until a cough came from the large cage in the corner. Teri came back into the light and eyed the animals in the smaller cages.

"If yall haven't noticed, the cages are a bit rusty along the sides. A little bit of force could help break the doors' hinges." She added helpfully.

"I thought you said you didn't fear death, kitty-cat." John grunted.

Teri smiled, showing all of her razor sharp teeth.

"I said I didn't _fear_ death, I didn't say I _liked_ dying." She replied thoughtfully.

John shrugged his shoulders and looked at the other animals around him.

"Well don't just stand there like stupid animals! Start hitting the cages!" He yelled as he himself started ramming against the bars.

All at once everyone in the room had started hitting the doors. Even Roxanne started, for there was no other way of getting out of here. Soon the mountain lion was beginning to get out and was almost there until suddenly the door beside her flung open.

This caused everyone to stop immediately as they saw and elderly man and a youngish man with a clip board came into view. Both men had on a white long-sleeved shirt that almost came down to their knees and white pants to match. The younger man walked through the rows of cages and read numbers that were on each cage.

Once he got to Roxanne's cage he stopped and tapped his pencil on her cage bars.

"This one sir. _Procyon lotor, _a young female around the age of four or five; a perfect specimen for the new experiment. It's a shame though, she's quite healthy." The elderly man just grunted and shrugged his shoulders.

"Doesn't matter anyhow. There are plenty of vermin running around and messing up our garbage. What's one less?"

"There is also another one sir, another raccoon; a male between six or seven years of age. Will we do the same experiment on him too? Or are we going to do a different test on him?" The younger man asked the older one as he wrote something on his clip board.

"We'll use him for a different test, perhaps the same one as the mountain lion. That way we will compare the difference between the larger animal and the smaller one. I've been meaning to use that cougar for a supposed lethal gas." He replied as he headed toward the door to the right.

"When shall we start?" asked the young man.

"In mere hours." The elderly man replied as the younger man shut the door behind him.

Once the door had closed everyone had been drawn to the silence, soaking in all of the horrible information that had been given to them.

No one took it as hard as Roxanne did. She only had mere hours until she died.

**_WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW_**

**_Sorry for the hold up, I went to the beach w/ my friend for 3 days. I was forced to write everything in a composition book... xP_**

_Procyon lotor the scientific name for raccoon. _


	8. Don't Give Up Yet

A large amount of animals had continued to hit at the cage doors once the silence had surrendered. Except those who knew Roxanne was either too upset to continue, or had lost hope.

Roxie was frozen to the spot. She looked to the tiled ground below her, having no emotion in her dark brown eyes. RJ swore that he had seen her eyes change to a complete black color as a tear fell to her prison floor.

Heather grabbed the metal bars that separated her from Roxanne. She had said something, but whatever she was trying to say hadn't reached the raccoon before her.

She knew that she would die here, she knew it almost the moment she had awaken, but the shock of it all had completely horrified her. All of the others that were here before them had been here for days, she just got here and she was already first in line.

"_Just my rotten luck." _She thought sadly.

"Roxie?" a small voice asked.

RJ tried to force a small smile, but gave up as Roxanne looked away from him. He sighed and sat with his back on his cage door.

"Look, I… I just wanna say that… it-it's not that bad. I mean, everyone dies eventually, but… I don't know. I'm not too good at cheering someone up when they're about to… well, ya know."

A tear ran down his cheek, but he quickly wiped it off. Across the way Roxanne wasn't doing any better, now she was trying to catch her breath as quietly as she could.

"What do you think it's like…? What happens after you die?" Heather whispered, asking no one in particular.

"Who knows Heather, who knows…?" Verne answered quietly.

The porcupine kids were starting to get upset now, asking their mother what was going to happen to their friend. Heather was beginning to cry herself. Ozzie was trying to calm her by talking to her, but nothing he said seemed to work. Poor little Hammy was frozen in the far left corner of his cage, sniffling and every once in a while whispered something no one could clearly hear. Lou was completely silent, except for the sounds he made trying to pry his rusted door hinges open.

"This is my entire fault…" Roxanne whispered to herself, which got Tim's attention and made him stop hitting at his door.

"No it's not, nobody is _ever _at fault for being captured--"

"But I knew the humans were going to capture us, and I didn't do a thing about it! I didn't even tell the others to run or anything! It _is _my fault!" she interrupted, a little louder than intended.

The grey squirrel shook his head sadly and sat beside her with the cage bars between them. He leaned his head on a bar and tried to make eye contact with her.

"That was a _mistake_, not your _fault_. The humans probably would have gotten at least one of you anyway, and then you would be separated from the one who was caught. Isn't that worse than everyone being together?"

Roxanne thought this over for a moment before she finally nodded in response. She looked at Tim who was waiting for her to say what she wanted to.

"At least… at least we're all here, I-I guess. Still, I'd rather not have the others go through this. _My_ "mistake" cost them their lives."

Tim sighed in defeat and stood to face his door, he started clawing at his hinges and kicking at the bars. He was so hopeful that they would get out of this somehow, but that seemed unlikely to happen to Roxie as she watched him attempt to damage the door.

"_I hate admitting this, but I think Teri was right. You really can't escape death forever."_

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Hours went by sooner than expected. Everyone had given up, seeing that no one was strong enough to break the door, not even Teri. She did manage to crack a little bit of the cage though. It still didn't help any of them though. Teri even broke something while ramming her whole body into the cage walls, forcing her to stop.

The two men had walked back and forth, bringing papers and bottles filled with different liquids to the room with the yellow triangle on the door. Roxanne refused to talk to anyone as she waited for the end; talking about it to someone only made it worse on her.

RJ tried the hardest to get her to talk, but she stayed silent as she watched the humans walk about.

"Come on Roxie, it'll be alright… just talk to me… Please?" RJ said softly.

She shook her head and closed her eyes, trying to keep the tears in her eyes from falling. The younger man stopped at her cage and waited for the older man to get a key. As the man got the key and put it in the key hole, she looked up and for once looked RJ in the eye.

"Don't give up just yet Rox…" he whispered.

She said nothing as she looked away from him and let the scientist pick her out of the cage.

"Hmm. She isn't struggling; strange don't you think, Dr. Kirkling?" the younger man asked.

"All the better for us I say. The less they struggle the easier it is to drug them." Dr. Kirkling answered as he led the young man to the testing room.

"I can't give up and just _let _them kill her." RJ whispered to himself.

He clawed at bolts holding him in and bit at the hinges, hitting the cage as violently as he could. Everyone had stopped to watch as he desperately tried to open the door, awestruck at how badly he wanted to save Roxanne. Some just shook their heads as they watched the men take the raccoon into the room and close the door behind them.

Suddenly a loud crash of metal turned everybody's attention to the raccoon, who was now sprawled out on the floor in front of his cage. RJ stood up and quickly brushed himself off.

"RJ, use the tool box to open the door!" Verne informed.

RJ nodded in response and started toward the said box. He began pushing the tool box under the door handle, before the door had swung open. The young man stared at the raccoon before him, but then snapped out of it and tried to stop the raccoon from getting away.

"Dr. Kirkling! The other raccoon escaped! He's trying to get into the lab!"

"Catch him you oaf!" The doctor yelled.

He had Roxanne pinned down, who was now struggling to avoid the needle he had in his other hand.

"RJ, what are you trying to do? You're going to get yourself killed!" She yelped

"I'm trying to save you, and I know what I'm doing!" he replied as he leaped onto a shelf above Roxanne and the scientist.

"Trust me babe, I've been in plenty life threatening situations before!" RJ added as he jumped onto the doctor's head, causing him to drop his needle, but he didn't let go of Roxanne.

"Davidson! Get this pest off of me!" cried the old man.

"What do you think I'm trying to do, Kirkling?" Dr. Davidson replied.

He finally was able to grab RJ by his front and back paws, holding him vertically in front of him. Dr. Kirkling kept his hand on Roxanne as he got his needle off of the floor.

"Now, if she will hold still for another second we can start the experiment. Put that rat back in a cage, I have something planned for him."

With that he inserted the needle into Roxanne's side, and held her lightly by her stomach. Immediately the chemical began to take over, she shook violently and started to panic. RJ tried to struggle out of the doctor's hands, but he couldn't escape as he went for a new cage…

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_**Muahahahaha! More Cliff Hangers for everyone!! R&R Please!! **_

_**I will update again either 8/8 or 8/9. It depends on which story out of the 2 needs to be worked on the most…**_


	9. Help has Arrived

"Halt! Put your hands up!" Yelled a police officer as he busted the door open.

Dr. Davidson immediately dropped RJ and put his hands where the officer could see them. As soon as he hit the ground RJ went straight to Roxanne. She was no longer in the doctor's hand but the poison had taken its mark, making her shake uncontrollably.

"RJ, what's happening to me?" She gasped.

"How am I supposed to know?" he asked under his breath.

"I don't wanna die RJ! Help me, please!"

"I can't… I don't know how." RJ whispered to her.

Roxanne tried to relax, but it was hard to do so when you know you're about to die. They looked up as a young lady with a light blue coat entered the room. She was obviously a vet from the familiar symbol on her name tag. She slowly put her hand up to RJs face and quickly stroked the top of his head.

"There, there little guy. We're going to help your friend here, okay?" She whispered in a small baby voice.

She slowly put her hands under Roxie's head and waist and picked her up gently. The human wrapped her in the bottom part of her light blue coat and held the raccoon close to her.

"Dr. Gamin, we've got an animal here that has been injected with some sort of liquor. She needs immediate medical assistance!"She yelled as she walked briskly toward the exit.

"Take her to the van; we'll get straight to her once we get all of the other animals out of here." Dr. Gammon replied.

The second vet was busy collecting the others from the cages, so no one saw RJ going after the first vet with Roxanne. He passed by the police who were handcuffing the two scientists.

"Brian Kirkling, you are under arrest for illegal animal testing. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say-- Dr. Sheehan? You've got a raccoon coming your way."

Dr. Sheehan turned with Roxie still in her arms. She gave the raccoon a confused look before calling to the other vet.

"You missed one Hannah!"

She turned back to the exit quickly as Dr. Gamin grabbed RJ just before he started going after the two.

"I'm sorry buddy; you gotta stay with the others," She whispered as she placed him in a small plastic cage. "We'll just put you right here. Then we're gonna feed you guys when we get to the office, kay?"

RJ nodded slowly and sat down in yet another cage. Dr. Gamin scratched her head and eyed the raccoon suspiciously.

"Either I've been working with animals too much or I swear I saw him nodding his head…" She shook her head and helped Dr. Sheehan with the cougar.

"You've been in this lab too long, Hannie. The fumes are getting to ya." Dr. Sheehan answered to her rhetorical question.

"Sure Meghan. We'll go with that, but I swear he nodded."

"Yep, and this cougar knows ballet. Come on goofy we need to get these animals somewhere safe."

RJ just laughed lightly at their reasoning and tried not to think about Roxie, but the more he sat there the more he thought about it.

"Ouch gosh. This place is horrible! These stupid plastic cages don't exactly brighten up my mood either."

RJ turned suddenly toward the cage that was put beside him.

"Stella? Oh Stella I thought you were dead! Where were you?" RJ exclaimed, glad that he finally had someone to talk to.

"Me? I was in another room. With a bunch of other skunks, they put them in a different room 'cause we "smell bad". I hate humans!" She grumbled irritably.

"Join the club."

"Why, what did they do to yall?" Stella asked quietly.

"They did something to Roxanne… she might not make it…" He whispered.

Stella nodded sympathetically. "You liked her didn't ya?"

"-sigh- Yeah, I guess. Speaking of liking someone, where's Tiger?"

Stella fiddled with her thumbs as she sighed sadly. "I don't really know."

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

Miserable, simply miserable. Tiger hid under the van that had taken his only love; Stella. The van continuously leaked oil and gasoline on his beautiful white fur. The pollen from the spring breeze stuck to his sticky fur, and the horrible cars with flashing lights scared the crap out of him! With their loud, 

annoying screaming and the break neck speed they had stopped at threw dust and rocks on him from the dirt road.

Not to mention he had to hold on to the back of the van for dear life. All of this just to get his precious Stella back, and he might as well get her friends too.

Finally, two young women had begun taking in animals, even some Tiger had recognized as Stella's friends. The two humans had closed the back doors and started to get into the front seats, until the driver heard a small meow from below.

"Hey Hannah, you missed another one!" Dr. Sheehan said sarcastically.

"No I didn't!" Hannah snapped.

Meghan picked up Tiger gently and placed him between the two of them. Dr. Gamin grabbed Roxanne and held her like a shield.

"Meghan! You know I'm allergic!"

"Then why'd you sign up for this job?" She replied between laughs.

"We only deal with _wild _animals, not house cats--"

"I'll take him to a veterinarian that specializes with cats then. Gosh." She grumbled as she turned on the ignition. "Just deal with it for three minutes."

"PMS much?" Dr. Gamin joked as she rolled her eyes.

"Not as much as you."

_**WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW**_

_**Yes there is still hope for Roxanne, but will she make it? JSYK: **__**I personally think animal testing is horrible. I don't care if it's legal or not, it's cruel!**_

_PMS- _Premenstrual Syndrome****

_**Anyway R&R Please!! **_


	10. The Vet's

It was nothing like the previous lab they were at. The room seemed brighter and calmer than the gloomy, dark prison they had escaped. Everyone had been taken into a different room and then brought back to a cage at least once after an hour or two. Still, no one had seen Roxanne as they went around the office.

"Where do you think she is?" Heather asked her father quietly.

"Who knows?" he answered.

"Your lil' raccoon friend?" John asked, "I heard she was taken' to the ER."

Heather glanced at the strange opossum and turned to her father.

"What's an ER?" she whispered, Ozzie shrugged his shoulders.

"Emergency room!" John spat.

Heather backed away from the neighboring cage and nodded quickly.

"Okay, okay. I get it now." She said, and then Heather turned as she saw that her father had been startled by John's outburst. She sighed and decided to let him play dead.

"Gosh, you people need to get out more." John grumbled.

"Tell me about it." RJ agreed from above.

RJ lay on his stomach and watched the humans go by. He hoped that one of them would bring Roxanne back, but he didn't see the two vets that had rescued them.

"RJ is it?" Tim said as he reached his hand through the bars to shake hands with RJ.

"Yeah, and you're Tim?"

"Right as rain… you okay? Ya know, with your friend in the ER and all--" He asked as he sat down.

"Yeah, I guess… unless these humans can't--"

"What? You think these humans can't save your friend…? Uh- I didn't exactly catch her name back at the lab…"

"Oh, Roxanne. Her name's Roxanne…" RJ replied.

"Roxanne… nice name."

"Yeah, sure…"

There was an awkward silence between the two for a while before RJ sighed. As if reading his mind Tim tapped the metal floor, getting RJ's attention.

"She'll be fine. I've actually been here before."

"Ya don't say." RJ said interestingly.

"Oh yeah, People 'round here are very nice. See, I got hit by a car back when I was younger. These people come along, bandaged me up, and I was… well _almost _as good as new."

"'_Almost'?"_ He asked suspiciously.

"Well, my arm wasn't _completely _fixed. Now I can do a complete 180 with my shoulder."

Tim demonstrated by pulling his arm back and making it so it snapped back into place the other way. RJ flinched as he heard the snap come from his shoulder.

"Hey, hey Tim! I can burp my ABC's!!" Hammy called from across the way.

The grey squirrel smiled, "Can you now? Why don't you demonstrate?"

"Yay! _**A, B, C, D, E…**_"

"The point is RJ; these nice folk will do all in their power to help Roxanne,"

"_**L, M, N, O, P, Q…"**_

"I've actually seen one human cry 'cause they lost one when I was there…"

RJ raised an eyebrow as Hammy continued and didn't notice they were talking in a completely different conversation.

"Did you know 'em?" RJ asked.

"_**W, X, Y..."**_

"I did actually... she was hit too." He said sadly.

"_**ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ... **_How was that?!"

"Brilliant! Hammy right?"

Hammy nodded feverishly and bowed as the porcupine kids applauded.

"Who was it?" RJ asked quietly.

"… My daughter… Roxanne reminds me of her… Dania had the same eye color."

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

Now, this was heaven on earth! The human girl had shampooed and conditioned him in wonderful scented soap _and _in a marvelous warm bath none the less. Although most cats disliked baths, it was an exception for Tiger had not had a bath cense _last_ spring.

The human, Meghan, was singing lightly along with the music on the radio as she gently rinsed him off. The cat hater Tiger had been introduced to earlier came in with a disgusted look.

"Now you're giving it a _bath_?!" Hannah moaned.

"You're one to talk; you gave the_ skunk_ a bath! FYI Dr. Gamin, _it _is a _he…_" Dr. Sheehan replied.

"You're gonna take _him_ to the Pet's-R-Us right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Dr. Sheehan stuck her tongue out before Hannah had left, making her friend do a double take and make a face back. Meghan turned on the blow dryer and started brushing Tiger's fur.

"She's not much of a cat person." She muttered to Tiger.

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

"Dr. Gamin!"

Hannah turned as her name was called out at the end of the hallway. She waited patiently for the other doctor to catch up with her.

"Yes Steven?" She said as she entered the room where the animals were being held.

"The raccoon you had sent into the ER is having a few difficulties…" He paused as Dr. Gamin forced him to hold out a bag of food while she gave the food to the animals.

"And?"

"A few of the symptoms have slowed down, but the poor thing is still shaking like a leaf… she doesn't seem to be in pain though…"

"Give her some Proctiadid that should stop the poison from attacking the rest of the red blood cells." She glanced at the food bag and groaned. "And can you order some more food for the animals? We're down to five bags."

"Okay."

She held out her hand before he could leave and added, "Try to feed the raccoon too, the poor thing's probably starving. The stupid "scientists" didn't actually feed their animals."

"Yes Ma'am."

Hannah turned back to the raccoon she was previously feeding.

"Alright lil' buddy, you need…"She picked up a clip board and read it out loud. "Three vitamins… and… two Pain Relievers? Seems you hit your head pretty hard…"

She scooped up some food and added two different powders with small spoons. She shook it up a bit and placed it in the raccoon's cage.

"Here ya go."

She turned to the other side, but turned as she heard the raccoon squeak twice. It began eating the food slowly, almost sadly, and then looked up as it saw the vet watching it.

"Yeah, I've been working here WAY too long."

She turned and chuckled as she watched the little red squirrel chirp excitedly.

"I could have sworn that raccoon said thank-you…"

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_**JSYK Proctiadid doesn't exist. I just made it up… Pet's-R-Us doesn't exist either... at least not where I am. :'(**_

_**R&R Please! **_


	11. Freedom

"Who's a good little kitty? You are! Yes you are!" Sarah, a new vet, cooed.

Tiger rolled his eyes. How he despised humans like _that_, but he stayed calm and decided not to claw her eyes out.

"Would you stop tormenting him and take him to Pet's-R-Us already!" Dr. Sheehan called in the next room. "Hannah's gonna have a fit!"

Dr. Haze shook her head as she laughed lightly, "How do you know he doesn't like it?"

"Coo at Dr. Gamin like that and see what happens."

"She'll claw my eyes out!" She complained as she got out the cage from under the table.

"That's probably what the _cat_ wants to do to you too." Meghan called back.

Tiger glanced at the hallway through the door as he heard cages clanging together. The human Hannah was taking two cages outside; one with a grey squirrel, the other with none other than Stella. He glanced back at the doctor; she was answering the phone.

Taking his chance he bolted after the cages. Noticing this, Dr. Haze went after him. Unfortunately she pulled the wired phone off of the wall, the answering machine following it to the floor. Dr. Sheehan ran in as she heard the commotion.

"I've known you for more than a decade, and you're _still _a klutz!" She grumbled as she picked up the parts and put them back together.

"But the cat was getting away and…" Sarah glanced around quickly, "uh- and it's gone…" she added nervously.

Meghan glared at her and shook her head, "You've always been the slowest out of the three of us…" She stood up and wiped the dust off of her coat, "Even though Hannah might be tied with you when it comes to slowness."

"You're so mean."

"I know. So you lost the cat?" Dr. Sheehan asked.

Sarah nodded guiltily.

"Don't worry about it. He probably is still in the building…"

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Roxanne woke up in a small carrying cage. She rubbed her head, only to notice that she had a weird looking thing around her neck. It was white and came up to her face, making her neck uncomfortable and stiff. It kind of looked like a cone.

"Great, I'm an ice cream cone…" she muttered.

Suddenly her eyes shot open and she pinched herself. Recognizing the pain she jumped up and hooted happily.

"I'm alive! I'm not dead! Hallelujah, praise the lord! Woo hoo!"

The doctor looked at her strangely through the cage door, smiling.

"Wow, you're rather squeaky." Dr. Sheehan said.

"Talking to the animals, Meghan?" Dr. Gamin asked as she backed the van into a clearing near the woods.

"They have feelings too… and you have to admit, the raccoon made a weird noise."

"Yeah that was weird, maybe it was all of the drugs it was given. Steven probably messed up on something like he usually does." Hannah said as she laughed.

"Poor Steven, what did he ever do to you?" Dr. Sheehan asked as she got out of the van.

She gently put the cage on the ground and followed Hannah to the back doors.

Roxanne glanced at the trees that started to forest. Around the clearing there were a few signs that said "No Hunting" in bold, black letters. Each sign was on a wired fence that separated the trees from the clear area, the only opening was a wooden door that was locked with a simple ten dollar lock.

"_They're gonna let us go… they're letting everybody free!_" She thought excitedly.

"I hope the others are here too…" She whispered.

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

Heather sighed impatiently as the vets began unloading the van.

"Where are we going now?"

A small white rabbit from the front looked back at everybody behind her, "They're gonna let us go!" She called excitedly.

Lots of chattering began as the news was heard, most of it happy and glad.

"They're probably not letting us go back to the log…" Verne groaned unhappily.

"At least we're not dead, Verne." RJ pointed out, "Besides, the humans were gonna tear down that place soon anyway."

"What?!" Verne exclaimed.

"Oh, I didn't tell you that did I?" RJ asked guiltily.

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Tiger waited patiently as he watched the humans unload everyone and take all of the cages deeper into the forest. After the last of the cages were in the woods, he went after the vets.

"I'm coming my love!" He called.

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Hammy scratched his head; he could have sworn someone said "upcoming meatloaf". But seeing that there was no meatloaf around here he thought otherwise. Then his mouth formed a large O as he looked at his surroundings.

There were trees everywhere, except for around a very large pond that was crawling with other squirrels as they collected acorns. The squirrels ran into the trees as the humans approached, but stuck around to meet the new comers. The humans had come many times before, letting others go into the wild.

"Here we are." Hannah grunted as she put Hammy's cage along with the other twenty or so.

Standing beside the cage she quickly unlatched the first cage. The white rabbit quickly looked around and bolted into the bushes. Nodding in content Dr. Sheehan unlatched the one beside it.

This went on until almost everyone from the hedge was free. The vets watched them strangely as they all gathered together into one group.

RJ and Heather watched the vets letting everyone go, waiting to see if one of them was Roxanne, but soon one of the doctors began taking cages back. Heather looked down unhappily and sighed, RJ patted her back in response.

"I guess she didn't make it…" She whispered quietly, "Sorry RJ…"

He nodded sadly and turned to see the others while Heather stuck around for a moment longer. Her attention turned to the human named Meghan, who was bending down over a different cage.

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Dr. Sheehan opened the cage from the top and picked up the raccoon softly. She gently pet her and took off her cone.

"You probably don't want this on you anymore." She whispered.

After Meghan got the cone off she smoothed out her fur where the cone was attached. She carefully rubbed the raccoon's hip where there was a bald spot.

"That'll grow back soon I guess…" she grunted mostly to herself.

"Bye little one." She whispered as she placed the raccoon on the ground.

Dr. Sheehan sat beside her friend in the grass as she watched the raccoon nuzzle another one happily. She chuckled as she watched the whole group of strange animals gather around the raccoons.

"This is the best part of the job," Hannah whispered to Meghan. "Being able to let the wild animals be wild."

They both raised an eyebrow as the white cat they had rescued earlier went up to the group friendlily.

"Now that was weird…" Dr. Gamin said.

"Yeah… it's like the cat belongs here."

Good, now we don't have to take it back." She grunted.

Meghan shook her head and continued watching the group as they began disappearing into the shrubs and beyond. The little red squirrel stopped for a moment and looked straight at the vets across the way.

It raised its arm and shook its hand back and forth for a moment and then ran back into the bushes.

The vets glanced at each other and laughed. It actually looked like the squirrel waved at them.

**_WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW_**

**_I know, it took FOREVER for me to update. My computer's been acting up lately..._**

**_R&R Please!!_**


	12. The End

"Hammy? Hammy!" Verne jogged up to the bush, hiding from the humans on the other side.

"Hammy! Come on!" He whispered as loudly as he could.

The small squirrel turned to him and happily jumped into the shrubs with his reptilian friend. RJ put his arm around Hammy's shoulders and shook him slightly.

"You don't wave at humans Hamilton! They'll think they're going crazy and then when they actually go crazy they break things… including fuzzy little animals like you."

Hammy eyes got big as he gulped loudly and started shrinking in fear.

Verne rolled his eyes, "He's joking Hammy, don't pay any attention to him."

Hammy ran up to catch up to the others who were fixing up a new log. Verne walked beside RJ and covered his mouth so the others wouldn't see.

"You were kidding right?" He asked vigilantly.

RJ raised his eyebrows mockingly, "Do I joke about stuff like that Verne? Think about it."

Verne stopped dead in his tracks as RJ continued his way to the new log. The new log was bigger, more spacious and didn't have any holes in it. RJ walked through it with Stella and Tiger following.

"Great, now we have to fill _this_ whole thing up…" RJ moaned.

Stella patted his back and laughed lightly, "Look on the bright side, now there's room for your _girlfriend_." She teased.

"Oh, and by the way. Verne lost count on how many days until winter, so we're free of counting for this year."

RJ brightened up immediately, "Yes! No counting!" he cheered as he jumped out of the log joyfully.

Heather and Roxie were talking away as he sat between the two of them, but they didn't seem to notice. As they were talking his attention turned to the bald spot on her leg. He tried to touch it while she was preoccupied, but she suddenly slapped his paw sharply.

"Don't touch that, it hurts." She stated as she rubbed it tenderly. "Plus you of all people know not to touch females around that general area."

Heather giggled loudly behind him trying to muffle it with her paw, so far it wasn't working.

"It's not that clo--"

"Yes it is!" Both Heather and Roxanne said in the exact same time.

"Okay, okay." He said as he raised his paws up in defeat, "What did the humans do to you anyway?"

Roxanne shrugged halfway, "Not sure, all I know is they put a lot of needles _right_ at the same place. That's why it hurts _so_ much."

Stella sat right between RJ and Heather, making things a little more squished together.

"Can you believe Tiger followed us all the way from the hedge?" she asked, mostly to the girls.

"I guess. He probably hitched a ride most of the time--" Heather started.

"Oh, he did. Three times actually. But wasn't it sweet of him all the same?"

"Yeah it was," Roxanne said. "That's really romantic isn't it? For some guy to come and save you… or at least follow you so he doesn't lose you?"

"Duh,"

"Yeah."

RJ pressed his ears together tightly as they began talking all at once.

"Well nice talking to you ladies." He said as he made his escape.

"Yep."

"Bye RJ!"

"I'll see you tonight!"

Once again they began talking systematically, whispering like teenage girls in high school.

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Roxanne sighed as she watched the fireflies yet again. It was very refreshing to be outside with the trees protecting you and the lighting bugs out again. She swung her legs back and forth, making the branch she was sitting on wave up and down slowly. She stopped as she saw a white flower with vibrant yellow pollen on the stamen. Carefully she plucked it off of the tree stem and placed it lightly on her ear.

"Bored with watching me yet?" She asked suddenly.

RJ jumped from the branch above and landed expertly beside Roxie.

"Nice landing" she commented.

"How'd you know?"

"Easily. I could feel someone watching me so I thought if I asked if they were bored yet they would give up… I kinda thought it was you."

RJ smiled as he rolled his eyes, "Nice flower."

"Are you jealous that you don't have one? I can get you one." She asked.

"Har, har. That was so funny I forgot to laugh." RJ replied.

"Well now that you remember, why don't you laugh now?"

"Oh, you think you're so funny--"

"I am funny." She stated. "Number one smart ass in my class of professional smart asses."

RJ gave up and rolled his eyes yet again. "Okay then smart ass."

Roxanne smiled triumphantly and held her hand out into the open. Before you knew it she had a firefly on her fingers.

"How do you do that?" RJ asked.

"Catch a firefly? All you have to do is wait for one to get close enough until you can reach them and lift your hand up so they _have _to land on your hand."

Roxie gently blew on her hand, making the firebug take flight once again. She looked around for a moment and finally spotted one, and then she lightly held RJ hand open and raised his arm slowly. A little tiny lighting bug crawled across his palm, making Roxanne snicker.

"That's the _smallest_ firefly I've _ever_ seen." She whispered as she watched it crawl and then light up rhythmically.

Roxie yawned and laid her head on RJs shoulder as they watched the firefly.

"I don't know about you, but this was one _very_ different spring adventure for me."

"You should have been at the hedge last year."

"And steal bear food? I'm not that crazy." She said quietly.

RJ yawned as he tried to answer, but tried again, "Yeah, sometimes you can be though… I think you're not as crazy as other raccoons 'cause of your eye color."

"Really?"

RJ made eye contact with Roxanne, trying to see her dark brown eyes at night.

"Yeah, not a lot of raccoons have brown as an eye color… I guess you're different."

Suddenly she had complete déjà vu.

"_Different? To him?" _She repeated in her mind, _"What makes me different from anyone else he's ever met?"_

She smiled lightly. _"Maybe I am different…"_

"Thank-you…" she whispered.

"No problem babe,"

"Don't call me that." She said as she was getting up.

"Whatever you say babe."

Roxanne rolled her eyes and bent down to kiss his cheek.

"Goodnight RJ…"

"Good night Roxie."

_**THE END!!**_


	13. Chapter 13

Hey yall! Wuz up?

Sorry about saying I would write a few more stories and then bailing on ya. But I have this MAJOR Writers-block. I'm not sure why, but I can't write ANYTHING!

Sooooo, I need a favor from anyone willing. I need something to write about! ANY plot that ANYONE wants! I need some help here! Just as long as it's in one of these categories…

1) Ice Age

2) Super Robot Monkey Team

3) Over the Hedge

4) Static Shock

5) Twilight (Preferably a Jacob fan but if you like Edward… I don't care.)

6) Any combination of the 5 above

7) Anything that has to relate 2 my pervious fanfics (A sequel, or a story within the story)

Thanks a whole bunch! TTYL!

~Meggie~


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